Latest in Blotter

An officer was positioned on Johnny Mercer Boulevard with a radar gun, when he clocked an oncoming car travelling at 60mph in a 45mph zone. He stopped the car, and after talking with the man noticed that his eyes were bloodshot and he smelled strongly of alcohol. The officer asked if the driver had been drinking, which the driver denied. The officer asked again, and the man said that he'd had two or three 12-ounce Miller Lites. At this point, the officer called for assistance. He then began to administer a field sobriety test. The driver failed three tests, including the Horizontal Gaze Nystagmus test, the Walk and Turn test (even after the officer demonstrated it for him), and the One Leg Stand test. The driver was placed in handcuffs. The driver was then tested on the Intoxilyzer 5000 by another officer, where he registered a blood alcohol level of .155. He was charged with speeding and DUI.

-- A man called police to report that he had been sexually assaulted. When an officer arrived the man was sitting on his porch, but when he began to ask him questions, the man spoke very softly and was difficult to understand. The complainant reported that four black males had broken into his room and "jacked him off until he ejaculated." The men, who were total strangers, had apparently climbed in through the window while he was sleeping in order to carry out their devious plan, and left once they were finished. The officer checked the window to the man's bedroom and found that a pane of glass was missing, and the bars had been pried open. The complainant said, however, that the damage was from a previous incident, not the current one. The officer called the building's owner, who said that the man had mental and emotional problems, and reported incidents on a weekly basis.

-- An officer responded to a report of a house fire, and upon arrival found a vacant house completely engulfed in flames. He parked and awaited the arrival of the Savannah Fire Department. It was in the early morning hours and none of the neighbors were awake to notice whether there had been any suspicious persons around the property. The fire was big enough that it caused some damage to the neighboring home, and the owner of that house told police that the owner of the burning home lived behind the property. The owner didn't want to respond to the scene, but said he would call the fire department in the morning. The same house had been set on fire recently, and he reported that he knew who to talk to about it.

-- Police were called with a complaint about an old white male panhandling and stumbling into oncoming traffic. When officers arrived, they found a man who fit the description stumbling down the shoulder of Ogeechee Road. After making contact with him, the officer immediately smelled a strong odor of alcohol coming from the man. The officer asked him if he'd been drinking all day, and he had been. He was arrested for public intoxication.

-- There was a report of a car on fire, which officers responded to shortly after midnight. When they arrived they found two cars fully engulfed in flames on a dealership lot. They blocked traffic to make way for the fire trucks, who were able to extinguish the burning vehicles. Several other vehicles on the lot had been damaged, including smashed windows and windshields. No record could be found for the business owner's contact information, so forensics was called in. While on the scene, another officer saw a man riding his bicycle in the area without a headlight. The cyclist was grinning and taking pictures of the fire. He was cited for not having a light on his bicycle.